Petitioning by City Council District 2 candidates to get on the ballot for the September primary election started on June 9. The petitions must be submitted from July 11-14, after which the Board of Elections checks the petitions to insure theyre valid, followed by a period during which opposing candidates can challenge each others petition signatures.

The Democratic candidates must collect 900 valid signatures of registered Democrats living in the district.

Gur Tsabar has pledged not to challenge his opponents petitions and has called on the other candidates to follow suit.

No one that I know has taken him up on that, said Brian Kavanagh, another candidate. Were focused on doing what we need to do  getting the signatures to get on the ballot. Well see what happens in July.

The general rule of thumb is that candidates should get three times the required number of signatures to protect themselves from challenges and getting knocked off the ballot.

With 11 candidates collecting John Hancocks, theres the risk a registered voter might sign for more than one candidate. In that case, the first valid signature is the one that counts.